


Nightmares

by SS_Chaos_Sauce, WoofTheWaffle (VesperRiver)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Burns, Character Death, Crying, F/M, Fuck Sazed (The Adventure Zone), Hurt/Comfort, Memory Loss, Nightmares, Other, Platonic Cuddling, Poison, Post-Canon, Sensory Deprivation, magnus's part is headcanons mostly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 14:44:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14718083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SS_Chaos_Sauce/pseuds/SS_Chaos_Sauce, https://archiveofourown.org/users/VesperRiver/pseuds/WoofTheWaffle
Summary: The seven birds have nightmares, they find comfort in each other





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> WoofTheWaffle wrote Taako, Lup, Barry and the conclusion!
> 
> Motherfucking_magicbrian wrote Lucretia, Davenport, Merle and Magnus!

In the time after the Day of Story and Song, after they had won, after the after, the Seven Birds were trying to rebuild their lives and their relationships aboard the rebuilt StarBlaster.

Lucretia’s cabin was very spare, she had never been one for things. The only furniture was a well worn desk and a bed that hadn’t seen a full night of sleep in years.

Lucretia’s nightmares come every night. Most of the time the nightmare is simple. She is standing in front of a mirror, the woman who stares back is a complete stranger.

Her reflection is so young, just 19, with bright hazel eyes and soft white hair. In the mirror her younger self is pointing, horrified, behind Lucretia. She turns and sees her family, and they look so mad.

Taako stands in the middle, Lup’s umbrastaff pointed at her chest, Magnus is on his left, the Flaming Raging Poisonous Sword of Doom raised in solidarity. From Taako’s right Merle holds his Xtreme Teen Bible aloft.

A lich Barry hovers begins the three and from next her she here’s her Captain’s horrified voice ask “Lucretia, what have you done?”

Usually Lucretia bears the wait if her nightmares alone. But one dream leaves her shaking with sobs and near hysteria.

This dream takes place on plane of the judges. This time she watches as Magnus breaks his bonds and gets turned to stone. She begins her year long flight.

Only this time, when a group of raiders shoot down the ship, she loses Fischer. Now she’s truly alone. She runs and fights and fixes the ship, and after a year, the Hunger doesn’t come.

She’s stuck here, her family dead, on a world trying to kill her. Anger floods through her, she spent so long keeping herself together in order to bring her family back.

She drives the ship to where the birds had landed over a year ago. Her ship was shot down and she was brought before the titanous Judges. Immediately she notices a difference in the Judges, for one there are six figures.

The voices booming and familiar.

Captain Davenport’s voice came first. “For your sins you have been judged. Wrath, you are angry at you crew for their foolishness, and at the Hunger for its absence.”

Magnus next, “Pride, you thought you could survive alone, you thought that you could kill the Hunger and save the planes all by yourself.”

In Taako’s voice “Greed, you took away everything from your family.”

Lup “Sloth, it took you twelve years to obtain a single artifact.”

Merle “Envy, you longed to be apart of the family you tore apart.”

Barry “Lust, you fell victim to the thrall of the staff, convinced that your power could be enough.”

Lucretia choked on the dust in the air. She felt as her lungs turned to stone, she collapsed to her knees. Unlike her family, she turned to granite piece by piece, agonizingly slow.

Lucretia woke up coughing and choking on her screams. She scrambled to the floor and curled up against the door. After she slowed her breathing she opened her door, and on shaky legs, made her way to Davenport’s room.

* * *

 

Davenport bolted upright in his bed, a scream catching in his throat. The nightmares were not as frequent as they had been on the StarBlaster, but they were twice as bad. He moved to his desk. Along the hundred year journey he has picked up the habit of dream journaling from Lucretia.

Tonight’s dream was one of the better ones. He had been standing at a podium, six shadows behind him. He opened his mouth to deliver his rousing speech, but no words ever came. The crowd murmured and pointed up, a dark cloud formed above them.

Davenport was powerless, unable to warn the crowd or his family, unable to even scream.

The pages of his journal were filled with the nightmares.

Some nights he dreamt of being the faithful servant that he was under Madame Director, only this time he remembered he was forced to watch his family with empty, static filled eyes.

After those dreams Davenport tended to be silent, terrified of becoming trapped by the words he could or could not say.

The worse dream was written a hundred times in the journal. During his time in the Bureau these pages trailed to static and frantic, scribbled “davenportdavenportdavenport”.

The dream was always the same. It took place on the deck of the StarBlaster. In front of him was a card game, and a man.

The man had a flower braided beard and static filled eyes. The man always looked concerned and Davenport could only yell “I’m Davenport, I’m Davenport!” over and over and over. The dream ended with Davenport collapsed into the familiar embrace of an unfamiliar man.

From his desk Davenport heard a soft knock at his cabin door. His clock read 3:55 am. The door opened with a quiet hiss.

Lucretia peeked in, eyes tired and rimmed with tears. “Captain, can I- can I stay in here for tonight. I had another nightmare.” Her voice wavered, God she sounded so young, she was young.

It had been a hundred and twelve years since any of the seven of them had a good night's sleep, and during the hundred years of the mission, the captain’s cabin had become a safe haven from sleepless nights.

* * *

 

When Taako dreams, he sometimes dreams of Glamour Springs.

He remembers when people started convulsing after taking that first bite of the 30 garlic clove chicken. People doubling over in pain, vomiting blood. It was horrendous.

He would wake up with the screaming of the victims and the smell of blood fresh in his mind and tears in his eyes. Sometimes the victims would be his loved ones.

He knows now that he wasn’t the one who caused this. He knows that it wasn’t him accidentally transmuting the berries into Deadly Nightshade. It wasn’t him. It was never him

It was Sazed, putting arsenic into the food out of jealousy, that Taako wouldn’t put him in the show. Hoping to kill him, but it didn’t work the way he wanted to, and ended up ruining Taako’s life.

Sometimes… he dreams that he would be the one who would die, that he had tasted the food before sending it out. He dreams of falling to the ground of the stagecoaches stage, convulsing, a tremendous pain in his stomach, and vomiting blood. He is in so much pain.

Taako wakes with a horrible taste in his mouth, and the scent of blood burning his nose. Tears stream down his face as he lets out a choked sob.

He looks at the clock next to the bed with blurry, tear filled vision, it’s nearly 4am.

Taako gets out of the bed with a sniffle. He was sharing the bed with Lup and Barry, he’s careful not to disturb them, though he knows that the two will be joining him shortly.

He makes his way down the hallway towards Davenports room, quietly sobbing

He opens the door without even knocking, Lucretia is already there, he puts his distrust for her aside for now and walks in without a word.

* * *

 

Lup’s nightmares usually consist of being trapped in that fucking umbrella.

She’s trapped within an endless sea of inky black curtains, unable to escape no matter how hard she tries. She can’t burn them down. She can’t rip them down. She can’t escape no matter how hard she tries.

She sinks to the ground of the Umbrastaff. She can’t feel, hear or see. She is numb.

Lup has no choice but to wait. For years she sits and waits for someone, anyone, to find her.

Eventually, she is found. Magnus, Merle and Taako have found her. They are here to let her go

But they don’t.

They don’t remember her. Why don’t they remember?

She realizes soon enough that Fischer somehow erased everyone's memories. She later learns that this was Lucretia's doing.

Lup watches helplessly as her brother gets hurt, unable to do anything as he suffers through Wonderland.

Wonderland was the worst thing she had to sit through. She so desperately wanted to help Taako out. But in the end it was worthless, they all died in wonderland and she was lost to suffer for an eternity in the depths of the umbrella.

She woke with a gasp, trying to get ahold of reality. Looking around almost frantically.

She immediately finds Barry, fitfully asleep next to her, surely to wake up any moment. Taako isn't there, she immediately thinks the worst. But then remembers where she is and where Taako is and lets out a shaky sigh.

The bedsheets feel too rough, too itchy for her liking. Like the interior of the Umbrastaff. She gets out of the bed, rubbing her arms in discomfort, her pajamas aren't exactly soft either, but she’ll have to deal with it for now. She didn’t bring anything else.

Lup finds her fuzzy blanket on the ground and wraps it around her, putting her slippers on too and makes her way through the halls of the starblaster towards Davenport’s room.

Once she enters, she finds Taako sitting on Davenports bed, tears running down his face. Though he perks up a little bit once she enters the room.

She sits on the bed next to him, he immediately leans on her and lets out a sob into her shoulder. Lup sheds her own tears as well.

* * *

 

Barry’s nightmares are mostly about forgetting Lup.

He’s back on the deck of the starblaster, 12 years younger, trying to figure out where the last glassing of the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet was.

Barry is so, so tired. He’s spent all of his time trying to find Lup that he’s barely gotten any sleep. Taako finds him on the deck and they start discussing their plan to search for her.

“What if she’s just gone?” He asks Taako

“Who?” Taako asks, sending a wave of panic through him.

Fuck, no no no no! He can’t forget her! They’re so close!

“What are we- Oh god, Lup… Taako. I’m- I can’t remember her face Taako. Taako, where-” He says in a panic.

He can’t remember what he’s doing. Where is he? What is he doing? It's all slipping his mind. He doesn’t want to forget. He can’t forget.

“Whose face?” Taako asks

“Is this Fischer?” He wonders aloud, realizing what it meant almost immediately. Someone is erasing his memories and they are fading fast.

He and Taako’s talk on the beach, his first date with Lup, their performance at the Legato Conservatory, the mongoose family where he first bonded with the twins, when he and Lup became a lich. A lich! He realizes, he can remember if he’s a lich.

“Taako, k-kill me! Right now! I’ll-I’ll remember if I’m a lich, i can- please, Taako, just kill me! It’ll- I’ll be okay! I can’t forget, I’m, I’m, begging you, please, Taako! Please!” he begs desperately

Suddenly everything is static. Where is he? Why is he in the sky? Who is that elf before him? Why is he pointing his wand at him? He tries to figure out why, but all that comes to him is static.

Suddenly, he is blasted in the chest by the elf before him. He falls back against the railing, a smile on his face.

And he falls.

He dies.

He remembers.

His body hits the ground with a sickening thud and he wakes with a gasp.

He is alone.

He did not go to sleep alone.

Lup and Taako are both gone. Barely a trace of either of them being in the bed with him are there.

Lup’s soft blanket that was on the floor is gone and a twinge of panic runs through him. Though he is slightly relieved to see Taako’s hat still on the floor near the bed.

He fumbles for his glasses and quickly gets out of bed. He stumbles through the halls of the starblaster to Davenports room.

He enters the room and quickly embraces Lup in a hug, feeling immensely relieved.

* * *

 

Merle died 68 times in his life. Most at the hands of one of his best friends. Interestingly enough, John wasn’t the focus of the majority of his nightmares, Fungston was.

Most dreams he was standing at the altar. The words of his last speech flowed from his mouth, he watched as the town he was supposed to have saved is torn apart and devoured by the Hunger. Masked men and women smiled up at him, tears running down their faces, as Merle’s voice guided them to the afterlife.

Sometimes at the back of the church we’re the one that the town had lost to the spores. Magnus usually spearheaded the group. Magnus was in most of Merle’s nightmares.

Magnus was so young, having just turned 21 the day before the mission left. Merle felt the weight of all 31 of Magnus’s deaths. Every arrow he stepped in front of, every world he remained on, and every stupid act that Magnus made during their time in  
refuge.

Merle loved the big lug like a son, and watching Magnus throw himself in front of any and every danger, and never once stopping him, that is one thing that Merle will dream of until his final day.

While not a focus, John lingered in his nightmares.

Tonight featured Merle sitting alone in the conference room, an empty glass of water on the table. The horror came from the floor. It winked with eyes of every shade and size.

From the opposite end of the room John attempted to pull himself from the floor. His hands clung to the legs of the chair reaching out,and Merle was trapped in his seat, unable to pull up his friend or give the final embrace he deserved.

Merle woke from that dream, desperately trying not to call out. From next door Merle heard the sounds of his family gathering in the one safe space that they had left.

He pulled himself together, faked a grin, and opened his door to join his family.

* * *

 

Magnus didn’t sleep well. He hadn’t slept well since his parents died. He had lived a hard life on the streets, fighting for food and for what was right.

Before the mission, his nightmares were simple, starving, being beaten to death, or being held back while someone innocent suffered. But you can’t call out when you sleep on couches and on the streets.

So, Magnus was a stoic. Silent nights and raucous days followed Magnus to the Institute, where he dreamed of failure, losing his scholarship, and ending up alone on the streets again. He was terrified of flying and of the ship, but he never said a word.

But after 19 deaths, the nightmares got worse. Even in nightmares being torn apart hurt. In dreams the animals of the first world cowered from him, as if he was the Hunger, more often than not he was.

It killed him to watch the cubs and pups hide and whimper.

Other nights he dreamed of lying in his bed as his breath clogged with furry spores, alone and helpless. What was worse is that it left the others helpless as well.

As security officer, Magnus was supposed to protect his crew, and when he had a passive death he felt so weak.

Most nightmares Magnus repressed and kept quiet. The only dreams he can’t keep quiet are the ones that get corrupted, the ones that take the happy memories and twist them.

In some dreams Taako and Merle are unable to retrieve his soul in Wonderland and Magnus watches as Edward kills them using his axe.

In others Magnus sits among the Tesseralia Losers and begins to give them the speech he knows will propel them towards greatness.

The words become barbed as he tells the children that they are losers and will always be losers. That dream ends as the Hunger comes and takes the sobbing children, saving them from his cruel words.

The dream that Magnus wakes up screaming from is an infrequent but horrible one.

It takes place somewhere that’s a mix of Faerun and the two-sunned world. Ravens Roost sits in front of a lavender sky.

In the dream, Magnus is polishing his rocking chair and Julia walk in and gives him a kiss. He looks up to smile at her and her face is bloody and burned.

Everything happens so fast.

His father-in-law and mentor screams in pain as the Hammer and Tongs explodes around them.

Magnus watches as tendrils of darkness rip through the building. Julia smiles as the Hunger begins to consume her. The blackness wrapped around her. Her eyes turn black and her voice is smooth and steady.

“Oh Magnus, why couldn’t you save us. This is all you fault. It’s you that the Hunger wanted. It’s your “love” that killed us.”

Dark fingers crept up Julia’s neck and face, eventually engulfing her. By now the whole house and all of Raven’s Roost has been consumed by the Hunger.

From behind where Julia had been came John.

Magnus didn’t meet John until the Day of Story and Song, so the John he saw was the ragged and bloody one. Black claw marks tore across his face, revealing ribbons of colors and blank white eyes where his own should have been.

“We've followed the light across a hundred planes and a hundred years, why do you think seven fragile birds could stop us?”

John’s smile was interrupted by the dark scars across his face. He reached towards Magnus and plunged his hand into his chest, ripping out a ball of pure light.

In the last few moments of his life, Magnus saw as the light of creation beat futilely in John’s hands.

Magnus woke right before his body would’ve have hit the ground. Sweat coated his body and terror sped his heart and breath. The panic was quickly overwhelming him

He moved towards his door and half walked half stumbled across the StarBlaster to Davenports cabin. He peeked through the ajar door and saw his family already gathered in their fortress.

Magnus hesitated, scared to show weakness in front of his crew, even after all these years.

He went to turn away when Lucretia spotted him through the crack and smiled. He pushed open the door and joined his family.

* * *

 

Eventually, the Seven of them all fall asleep on the floor of Davenports room. The floor is completely covered in pillows and blankets.

In the middle of the floor, is Magnus. Fast asleep and surrounded by the others, who are using him as a pillow. Not that he minds, he never did.

Taako is on one side of Magnus, his face almost buried in the fighters neck. Lucretia is on the other side, her head resting on his chest and is snoring softly.

Merle is using one of Magnus’ arms as a pillow, he is drooling slightly, Magnus never cared for that.

Lup and Barry are by his legs, a mess of tangled limbs as they sleep.

Davenport is on the other side of his legs, his arm draped across one of them.

They don’t dream when they’re all together, not usually. Once in awhile though, there's a dream about their happy endings.

But now, they lie in the comfort of one another in a dreamless sleep.


End file.
